A Hindi film conceived in the style of ‘Film-Noir’ or typical American Psychological thrillers way back in the sixties was certainly nothing short of an achievement made by its director Satyen Bose. The genre was not really adapted in its exact sense by the film-makers of that era and therefore Bose’s RAAT AUR DIN surely needs to be given its due importance in the modern times, quite deservingly.

This 1967 black & white hindi classic, daringly talks about a "Split Personality Disorder" suffered by a beautiful woman played by Nargis. And the talented actress even won a National Award for her fabulous performance in the film as two different characters of Varuna and Peggy. Unlike the other films of those decades, RAAT AUR DIN starts working on its plot from the very first scene itself without any usual character introduction or opening sequences and then keeps the suspense intact right till its last 10 minutes in a much focused manner. More importantly there is no unwanted love angle in here and no typical emotional scenes as seen in most of the films made in that particular period of time in our Hindi film industry.

The film not only has truly melodious songs as “Raat Aur Din Diya Jale”, “Dil Ki Gireh Khol Do” and more, but also features some well written dialogues, great cinematography and a lovable yet astonishing dance performance by Nargis in her unique style. In fact such is the story progression in its script that it can even give a good competition to the few psychological thrillers made in the recent times too after a gap of more than 4 decades. But unfortunately, the other bitter truth behind the curtain is that the entire structure of RAAT AUR DIN is not an original and has been highly inspired from two English suspense classics stated below.

Its basic theme of a disturbed lady is exactly similar to THE THREE FACES OF EVE (1957) directed by Nunnally Johnson, which also revolves around a doctor treating a woman suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. The film is based on a book by psychiatrists Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, focusing on their real life case of Chris Costner Sizemore, also known as Eve White. Interestingly in this film too, the lead actress Joanne Woodward won the Best Actress Academy Award in the year 1958 for her brilliant portrayal of multiple personalities on the screen so perfectly.

Talking about its second source of inspiration, the solid climax of RAAT AUR DIN dealing with Nargis’s mother and her forgettable childhood seems to be highly inspired from Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE released in 1964. And this film again had a leading character of a charming lady who is a habitual thief with serious psychological problems related to her scary past. Incidentally MARNIE also has the mention of a name “Peggy” as used in RAAT AUR DIN and it was also made on a novel with the same title written by Winston Graham. The film had Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery playing the lead, but could only get just average response from the viewer. in the year of its release. However later it was widely considered to be a unique Hitchcock classic by all.

Coming back to the excellence achieved by Nargis & Satyen Bose in their RAAT AUR DIN, though the film is highly inspired from the two classics mentioned above, it still has a brave and distinctive persona of its own with a novel climax (different from the two English films) revealing a shocking secret in the end very beautifully. So from that angle alone, it surely deserves to be seen for experiencing the off-beat kind of movies made in the late sixties by thoughtful directors like Satyen Bose and daring performers like Nargis, without any doubt.

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